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As ’55 Turns 55, a Dodger Celebrates

For people of a certain age who lived in Brooklyn more than half a century ago, Oct. 4 is a day that will live in infinity.

Fifty-five years from ’55, many of those people of a certain age raised a glass to what happened that Oct. 4 at Yankee Stadium because they remember when the Brooklyn Dodgers celebrated their only World Series championship. Too many of those famous Dodgers have passed on: Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges, Carl Furillo and Johnny Podres, the left-hander who defeated the Yankees, 2-0, that afternoon.

Thankfully, eight are still with us — Duke Snider, Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine, Don Zimmer, George Shuba, Roger Craig, Ed Roebuck and Sandy Koufax, a bonus-baby rookie with a 2-2 record that season.

One of those eight, the erudite Erskine, soon to be 84, a retired banker living in his hometown, Anderson, Ind., recalled over the phone the details of that Game 7 as if he had just tossed his glove into his Dodgers locker. In the 1953 Series, he struck out 14 batters, then a World Series record. Over his 12 seasons as a curveball right-hander known in Brooklyn as Oisk, Erskine had a 122-78 record.

“The World Series was different from the season; the level of intensity was different,” he said. “When we played the Giants 22 times in those years, it was profound hatred. Against the Yankees, it was a zone above intense competition. This was classic baseball. And in all those Series, there was always some strange play that the Yankees made and we didn’t that turned the last game.”

Photo

Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine, a member of the 1955 team that beat the Yankees in the World Series, on Monday, the anniversary of Brooklyn’s only championship.Credit
A.J. Mast for The New York Times

With two out in the third inning, Podres walked Phil Rizzuto, the Yankees’ shortstop. Billy Martin singled, Rizzuto stopping at second. Hurrying to third on Gil McDougald’s grounder, Rizzuto was hit by the batted ball, an automatic third out.

“Seeing Rizzuto called out to end that inning, I thought, that’s an omen — things like that usually happened to us,” Erskine said. “And when we scored in the top of the fourth on Campy’s double and Gil’s single, I remembered how confident Podres had been on our bus coming over from Ebbets Field.”

During those Series, the Dodgers would gather at their Flatbush ballpark and ride to the Stadium with a police escort, the players in one bus, their families in the other.

“I didn’t hear Podres say it,” Erskine said, “but Duke told me how on the bus, Podres, who had won the third game, 8-3, with a seven-hitter, kept yelling, ‘Get me one today, just get me one run.’ And in the sixth, we got another when Gil’s sacrifice fly to deep right-center scored Pee Wee, who had led off with a single.”

In the bottom of the sixth, with Martin on second and McDougald on first with none out, the Series turned when Yogi Berra lifted a fly down the left-field line.

“There was a charm to the Yankee and Dodger World Series that the final game always came down to one play,” Erskine said. “This time, it was the Sandy Amoros play.”

Photo

In Game 7, with two Yankees on and two out in the third, Phil Rizzuto was hit by a grounder to end the inning. Also pictured is Dodgers third baseman Don Hoak and pitcher Johnny Podres.Credit
Meyer Liebowitz/The New York Times

With a 2-0 lead, Walt Alston, the Dodgers’ manager, had benched Zimmer, moved Jim Gilliam to second base and inserted Amoros in left field at the start of the sixth. Now, with Berra’s fly ball floating down the line, Amoros, a left-handed thrower, stuck out his glove and snatched the ball. Martin turned back toward second as McDougald rounded the base. Amoros threw to Reese, who threw to Hodges, doubling McDougald off first base.

“When Pee Wee threw out Elston Howard for the final out, we swamped Podres at the mound,” Erskine said. “But on the way up the ramp to our clubhouse, after finally winning the World Series, we were more reverential than boisterous. Before the writers came in, there was no noise. I looked at Pee Wee, and he had a tear in his eye. So did Jackie and Gil. I used to think I was the only one who saw that, but Roger Craig later told me he saw it, too.”

As the Dodgers’ buses returned to Ebbets Field, cheers serenaded block by block. Then the players and their wives reassembled at the Hotel Bossert, not far from the club offices at 215 Montague Street.

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“At the party,” Erskine said with a laugh, “Frank Scott, the first agent to get players money for television appearances, called and said: ‘The “Today” show wants Podres in the morning. I want you and Duke to make sure Podres gets there.’ We didn’t know how much sleep Podres would have, if any, but we got him there. He was yelling, ‘Bring ’em on again.’ ”

Over the phone, you could feel the thrill in Carl Erskine’s voice as he retold what happened 55 years ago on Oct. 4, 1955.

“I think I’ll go get my World Series ring, shine it up and wear it,” he said. “I don’t often wear it, but I wear it on Oct. 4.”

A version of this article appears in print on October 5, 2010, on Page B17 of the New York edition with the headline: As ’55 Turns 55,
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